The Reborn Sovereign of Ruin, Bound by His Star

Chapter 227: Chapter 227: Scattering

Liam returned to his laboratory.

Not immediately, and certainly not without restrictions, arguments, medical threats, and enough supervision to make him feel like a volatile artifact in his own facility.

But he returned.

As Arik had promised, Marin gradually increased the hours Liam was permitted to work. Two became three, then four, and eventually six, provided he took regular breaks, ate on schedule, did not use his ether channels, and submitted to the monitoring ward glowing beneath his shirt whenever his body decided he had become too ambitious.

Six hours with breaks was not freedom.

It was close enough to become dangerous.

The Vanguard had suffered during his absence, though not from neglect. His team had kept it stable, documented every alteration, and resisted the temptation to touch anything they could not explain, which Liam considered evidence that at least some of his training had survived him.

The main assembly occupied the center of the laboratory, metal housing open around the ether-conversion chamber while diagnostic projections floated above it in layered blue grids. The experimental unit was not yet ready for widespread deployment, but its output was stable enough to prove that Wrohan could build something independent of the noble-controlled grid.

Something hospitals could use.

Something water systems and shelters could rely on when the country began cutting diseased families out of its infrastructure.

Twenty meters away stood the Gate.

A dark form looming beneath modern laboratory lights, surrounded by ward barriers, sensor arrays, and a bright line on the floor that had been added specifically to insult Liam.

Alexander and Stanford took turns making sure he remained on the correct side of it.

Alexander was less subtle.

"My lord," he said whenever Liam’s attention stayed on the Gate for longer than thirty seconds.

"I am looking."

"You are leaning."

"I am standing."

"You are standing with intent."

Liam turned from the projected Vanguard model and looked at him. "You have worked with Stanford too long."

Alexander appeared pleased by that accusation.

Stanford, stationed near the marked line, remained professionally blank. "Lord Liam has not crossed."

"Thank you," Liam said.

"Yet."

"Professional traitor."

"Yes, my lord."

The days passed like that.

Calculations. Safety reviews. Mechanical tolerances.

Staff meetings conducted from a chair because Marin had somehow convinced everyone in the laboratory that Liam standing for too long was an act of treason.

The Vanguard improved.

So did Liam.

His strength returned by degrees, though slower than his patience. His channels still tired too easily, but he did not need them for most of the work. He could read, design, argue, correct, and terrify junior engineers entirely through ordinary means.

It was almost peaceful.

Outside the laboratory, Wrohan prepared to kill people.

Arik and Rex spent their days between financial audits, sealed interrogations, asset seizures, and meetings no one described in detail around Liam because they were under the mistaken impression that secrecy still protected him from anything.

Ray’s execution was announced publicly on the fourth day.

The statement appeared across every national channel at noon.

Ray Canmore, former royal heir and accused conspirator against the crown, would be executed following the completion of the emergency tribunal. The charges included treason, collaboration with hostile factions, misappropriation of public funds, obstruction of state recovery, and participation in the financial structures that had deprived civilian workers of salaries for months.

Liam read the statement from his workstation, one hand resting beside a set of thermal-efficiency projections.

He felt very little.

That surprised him less than it should have.

Ray had never been his father.

He had been a name, a bloodline, an occasional threat dressed as family, and another man Felix had used because useless people were often easier to position than competent ones.

If he were going to assign that title to someone, that would be Henry.

Alexander watched him carefully.

Liam did not look up. "You may stop monitoring my emotional collapse. There is not one scheduled."

"I was not monitoring."

"You were staring."

Stanford’s comm lit before either man could answer.

He read the message once.

Then looked toward Liam.

"What?"

"The Canmores are scattering."

Liam’s fingers stopped over the projection.

"Which Canmores?"

"Ray’s children. Cain’s recognized branch. Felix’s unacknowledged children and several allied houses. Some are attempting to leave Wrohan. Others are moving assets through private ether accounts."

"House arrest?"

"Several orders were issued too late," Stanford said. "The family began moving before the public announcement."

Liam leaned back slowly.

Of course they had.

Ray’s execution was not only punishment but also a signal.

A declaration that the old protections were gone and blood no longer guaranteed survival.

The Gate remained silent across the laboratory.

The Vanguard continued its low mechanical hum.

One represented a past no one understood.

The other represented a future Liam intended to make usable before the country finished tearing itself open.

"Did Rex expect them to run?" Liam asked.

"Yes."

That answer came from Arik.

Liam turned.

The prince had entered, his hands in his pockets, his dark coat still fastened, his expression composed in the particular way that meant someone else had already had a very bad day.

Mezos followed him, looking almost cheerful.

That was worse.

Liam glanced between them. "You let them scatter."

"We gave them room to reveal routes, accounts, contacts, and safe houses," Arik said.

Mezos lifted his comm. "Three offshore holding structures, two compromised border officials, four bank directors, and an ether-transport network Cain’s people have been using for years."

Alexander looked impressed.

Stanford did not, which meant he probably was.

Liam narrowed his eyes. "And the people?"

"Being collected," Mezos said.

"Alive?"

"For now."

Arik came closer, gaze flicking once to the monitoring ward beneath Liam’s shirt, then to the open Vanguard housing, then finally to the marked line near the Gate.

Liam noticed.

"I did not touch it."

"I know."

"You still checked."

"I am thorough."

"You are paranoid."

"Also true."

Mezos’s comm chimed.

He glanced down, read the message, and smiled.

"One of Felix’s daughters just attempted to cross into Pais using a diplomatic vehicle registered to an agricultural consortium."

Liam’s brows rose. "Felix acknowledged a daughter?"

"No," Mezos said. "But he funded her education, gave her access to Canmore accounts, and placed her husband on three state energy boards."

"Sentimental."

"In his way."

Arik’s expression remained cold. "She was carrying copies of loan agreements and a list of officials who helped reroute the salary funds."

Liam’s face went still.

The rerouting attempt.

The effort to take emergency payments from workers who had already gone unpaid for half a year and send them toward noble banks under the language of urgent stabilization.

"They knew what the money was for," Liam said. "And still tried?"

"Yes," Arik replied.

Something dark settled through Liam.

The Canmores and their allies had mistaken the country for inheritance. They had believed every hospital, grid line, salary account, and public reserve existed only until someone with the correct name wanted it more.

"When does Rex begin?" Liam asked.

"Arrests have already begun," Mezos said.

"I meant punishments."

Arik watched him.

"Soon."

Liam turned back to the Vanguard model. The projected output map floated above the machine, showing possible emergency sites across Wrohan in pale points of light.

"Then I need the first deployment plan ready before the executions," Liam said.

Alexander frowned. "Why before?"

"Because their allies will retaliate. Systems will fail suddenly. Supply chains will become unreliable. Someone will sabotage the grid and call it instability caused by Rex." Liam enlarged the map. "If we have even three Vanguard units placed at critical sites, the message changes. The crown removes parasites, and the country keeps running."

Arik stared at the map.

Then at Liam.

"You expected this."

"I expected competence to provoke sabotage."

Mezos’s smile widened faintly. "That is almost cynical enough for government."

"It is engineering. We assume failure and design around it."

Arik came to stand beside him, close but not touching until Liam shifted his hand slightly toward him.

Only then did Arik’s fingers settle over his.

"The first arrests will become public tomorrow," Arik said. "Ray’s tribunal follows. The executions after that."

"Plural."

"Very."

Across the room, the Gate remained silent.

The Vanguard hummed steadily beneath Liam’s hand.

Outside, the Canmores scattered.

And for the first time in generations, Wrohan was hunting them back.